The digital pages flipped with a sterile, artificial sound. He started reading about "Scarcity"—the fundamental problem of having seemingly unlimited wants in a world of limited resources. Mert looked at his desk: one half-eaten simit, a lukewarm glass of tea, and three liras in change. Scarcity wasn't a theory; it was his Tuesday.
Suddenly, a highlighted note from a previous student appeared in the margins of the PDF: “Don’t just look at the lines. Look at the people behind them.”
By Chapter 4, the graphs began to look like mountains. He imagined himself climbing the "Equilibrium Point," searching for that perfect spot where effort met reward. The text explained that markets seek balance, but Mert felt entirely off-kilter.
The dusty PDF icon on Mert’s laptop screen felt like a heavy stone. "Genel İktisada Giriş" (Introduction to General Economics) stared back at him in bold, clinical font. It was 2:00 AM, and the blue light of the monitor was the only thing keeping him awake in his cramped Istanbul dorm room.